


Chrysopoeia

by nibs (orphan_account)



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Back to Front, Character Study, Gen, Light Angst, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 07:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13476237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/nibs
Summary: Any story can have a happy ending if arranged in the right way. While working on fixing the portal, Stan dreams of a life in reverse. Pre-Canon.





	Chrysopoeia

Stan's eyes snaps open and he groans as something twitch down his back.

Another day, another random pain somewhere on his body. At the very least he has woken up in his bedroom, the lumpy mattress clumsily cradling him. He shudders at the thought of the past couple days and how stiff his body had been. The basement lab is no place to fall asleep in. Eventually, he rolls out of bed, ambles towards the bathroom, and gets ready. As he puts on his suit, he stares at his reflection in the mirror and notices something off. He narrows his eyes and looks closer.

_White._

He has streaks of white in his hair. He runs his fingers against them lightly and swallows hard. Of all the futures he has imagined for himself, getting white hair has never been one of them. _Where has the time gone?_ His eyes wander to the sun-bleached photo stuck next to the mirror. Two dark-haired boys atop a half-built boat smile widely and unseeingly at him. They both look incredibly young, all missing baby teeth and bruised knees. He frowns back at it. Time is running away from him.

The rest of the day goes sluggishly, the tourists running thin what with the summer season being over more than a month ago. As soon as Stan hears the last parked car start its engine, he switches the gift shop's sign to "CLOSED" and runs down to the basement. The door opens to the control room and he shivers at the chill that greets him. He makes a note in his head to bring a blanket the next time he goes down. It might make falling asleep here easier as well.

Through the glass window, the portal looms ominously, a large triangular structure that seems impossibly alien. There are days when Stan looks at it and gets awestruck at the thought that his brother has made it. Stan has seen so many things in the decades he's been alive and this machine remains beyond unnatural to him. The hole in the middle of the triangle continues to be a hole. Stan remembers the electric blue-white light that filled it once. An image of his brother's frightened eyes pop into his mind; and if he listens close enough, he can almost hear Ford's terrified pleas for him to do something. 

Stan shakes his head and forcibly drags back the chair tucked underneath the control panel. He plops down onto it and opens his brother's notes more forcefully than he intends to. He dives back into attempting to understand what his brother had been working on. Somewhere between deciphering a haphazardly written code and a diagram of some mechanical component, Stan falls asleep.

-

Stan dreams of walking out of the basement and back to the Shack, all smiles and charm as the tourists come flooding back in.

He dreams of staring at the mirror and watches the whites in his hair darken. He takes off his suit and crawls back into bed while the aches of his body slowly disappear. Fall turns back into summer as the cold winds warm up and the leaves turn green and fall up. Stan continues working down in the lab for years until in frustration he bangs on the machine.

"Drofnats!" Stan garbles out in fear, "Niaga mih esol tnac I! Kcab mih tog tsuj I!"

Impossibly, it turns back on. Ford emerges out from the portal and falls into Stan's arms.

They fight, tussling on the ground like children once again. They make up. Stan collapses onto the hot brand on one of the machines but Ford pulls him away from it. The burn on his back heals until nothing but fresh skin remains. Stan gives his twin back the journal, while Ford takes back his words of sending Stanley away.

This time it's Stanley that leaves, driving away from Oregon and back to New Mexico. Ford dismantles the machine and saves the world.

Life will be terrible for Stan; then better as he drives through the country and across the border to clear his name. Customers that once chased him away from their town welcome him back. His criminal record shortens day by day and the warrants out for him disappear. People trust him more and more. Places that banned him invite him back in once again. He understands the freedom of the open road in a way only an honest man can. Stan travels for years. As he disposes of a newly bought license for one Steve Pinington, he crosses state lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey as no one but Stanley Pines.

Stan drives to Glass Shard Beach and parks in front of an achingly familiar pawnshop. He gets out of his car and looks up to see Ford watching him through the window of their childhood bedroom. His brother looks weary but whole and free from whatever madness he has seen while working on the portal. The door opens and Pops greets him. They stare at each other for a moment before Stan walks in. He's finally home.

His father takes his packed duffle bag and throws it back into the closet never to be seen again. Ford is still angry at him but that's okay because Stan goes back to the science fair the next evening and fixes his twin's project. The rotor blades on the perpetual motion machine spin counterclockwise on and on once again.

On a creaking swing set along the shore, Stan and Ford watches the sun rise together and Ford tells Stan that he's not leaving his twin brother for a college on the other side of the country. Stan smiles, content that his brother would not abandon him.

They grow younger together, Ford spending less and less time on his studies as he spends more and more time with Stan. Bullies leave them alone as they play along the Stan-O-War. They set the boat back to where they found it and run back out to the shore, hand in hand and laughter filling the space between them. Their summers are endless in a way only childhood summers can be. They have all the time to play under the sunny sky.

They have all the time to be together.

-

Stan wakes up abruptly at the sound of a crash. He blearily looks around, sees the books and papers strewn all over the ground, and sighs. He gets on cleaning up after himself, dreams of sunny days and the faint scent of brine whisked away by the stinging pain on his back.

**Author's Note:**

> Faded pictures bleached by sun  
> The tale's told, the summer's done.  
> In memories, the Pines still play  
> On a sunny summer's day.


End file.
